Slots Adventures

Things have been unusually hectic as of late, but i couldn’t pass up this week’s big freeroll at English Harbour.  the Big Frees IV is running until the first of Feb, and has $10,000 in bonus money put up as prizes.

the tournament is being held on the Reel Deal slot, which i’ve played several times, so i’m familiar with it. 

players get $500 to start with, and at the end of the tournament the top - get this - 587 players - take home some bonus cash.  how can you not win?

hehe, i’m about to find out!

the leader in the tourney took their $500 and have turned it into a little more than $250,000.  in-sane.  just plain in-sane.

well, after taking my 20 qualifying spins, the casino will now tell me that i’m in 412th place, even though i lost money during the warm-ups.

now, in looking at the cash part of the tournament, i see that there’s just shy of $8,000 in the rebuy pool.  not that i have a hope in making it high enough on the leaderboard to tap into the cash prizes.  i should just stop right now, and take a couple of bonus bucks into my account should my score hold up, but, i’m in the mood to play.

well, after a relatively short while, i’m broke.  but happy that i went ahead spinning.  this time, because it was a freeroll and i had a good excuse to just keep going for the fun of it, i had more fun losing than i would have quitting while i was ahead.

the new microgamings will be out shortly, so i’m planning on sepnding some time with them thursday.  and, english harbour will certainly be having some more freerolls next month, so there’s plenty of slots playing to look forward to for me.

hey, that’s me! 

it turns out that Slots Jam had a bit of a contest at their forums, voting on things like the best slots, best casinos, best tournament action, and things of that nature.  they also had a vote on the best slots blog . . . and Slots Adventures Won!!  that gets a genuine woo-hoo!

here’s a link to the page they put up about Slots Adventures - Best Slots Blog Award

hey, for anyone stopping by that gave me a vote in the poll, i want to say thanks!  i know there are a lot of other slots blogs out there, so to be picked at the top of the heap is certainly something that can make you smile

i think this is a good spot to give a couple of plugs for other sites, because i know you can read what i write each day in less time than it takes to drink 1/2 a cup of coffee.

besides the forums and the blog at SlotsJam, you might want to check in on Slots Systems from time to time.  chuck flick puts slots “methods” books to the test by going the consumer reports route with them.  he’ll test the “sure fire win” methods and report on them.

and, i also check the forums at Slot Machines Forums from time to time.

can’t wait to tell the wife that now i have “an award winning” blog

the second of the new slots coming out from microgaming in february is the Prime Property game.  it’s a video slot with a whopping 40 paylines. 

besides packing in the paylines, it looks like microgaming packed in the features as well.  there is a wild symbol on the reels, and a scatter.  but besides those two staples you can also a free spin session and a bonus game to the list.

the word on the free spin session is that it is not triggered by a free spin symbol.  i guess i’ll have to play it to find out how they trigger it.  maybe from inside the bonus game or something.

 the bonus game is a “pick until pop” like the Age of Discovery machine.  you get to keep going until you choose the “collect now” piece.  this is probably my favorite form of bonus game!

with all of the features and paylines, i’m kindof looking forward to taking a couple of spins on this machine when it comes out so i can see how they packed all of this into one slots game.

it will be available, like all new microgaming slots are, at Roxy Palace casino.

here’s a brief overview of theis slots game that is slated for released in Feb 2007.

 the Magic Spell slot is a 25 line video slot.  players can wager up to 10 coins on each line, so there’s a wide range of wagering possibilities. 

 the theme of the slot is a magical academy (can you say harry potter?).  the wise old wizard symbol, named Master Tom, is the WILD symbol on the reels of this slot.  it also acts as a multiplier, multiplying the value of a winning combination by five.

 i’m trying to look at the paytable screenshot, and it looks as thought the WILD might be finicky, only substituting for some (not all) symbols.  hmmm, i’ll have to take a look into that when the game is released and i can do a proper “test drive” of the slot!

there are two bonus screens, which suggests that there should be some symbols used to unlock them.  there’s a MAGIC bonus, and a Secret Library Bonus.  both of them a pick’em games, but the Library one seems to be a tiered game as well.  kind of like, make the right choice, and go on.  choose the wrong door and it’s all over.  we’ll have to see.

the Magic Spell machine is going to be available for play at Roxy Palace, which is one of my more favorite microgaming casinos.

well, i got my heads up from the little birdie that chirps in my ear every month telling me about the new slots that will be rolled out to the microgaming casinos.  at first i only read the release about the table games, and thought, “wow, that’s a lot of work they did.  but, there’s no damned slot machines coming out?!!?”

then i wrote up a whole post saying i’m disappointed, but i understand if there’s no new slots in the pipeline.  then i uh, saw the second release with the slots on it.  made me feel about as bright as that time i tried to cash out at All Jackpots and forgot to hit the final “send me the money” button.  and spent a week wondering what their problem was.  hehe

anyway, to the chase . . .

there are two new slots coming out from microgaming in feb.  they’re both video slots, and they have a lot of paylines.  one is themed around the property craze that has been going on for years now.  if you have the home and garden channel on your tv, you’ve probably seen one of the fifty-two shows about improving, selling, or flipping houses.  this slot is for those folks.

the other slot is the Magic Spell machine.  hmm, released a little ahead of the next Harry Potter movie, it’s of that ilk.  secret rooms, potions, that kind of stuff. 

Whoo-hoo, i restarted my computer last night, and bingo, today she’s running all the programs without issue.  i might even try to get my new Zune up and running by end of the day. 

what it means on the slots front is that i could get into EHarbour without any problems today.  and, sure enough, they are running the Big Free III which is a slots tournament with $5,000 in free prizes.  there is no entry fee for the tournament so it’s yet another in the long line of free slots tournaments being offered at English Harbour.

the formula for payouts and starting credits and such seems to have been settled upon and repeated in all these big tournaments.  this one lasts a week, and with $5,000 up for grabs, that makes it a big one. 

every player starts out with $500 in credits on the machine, which in the case of this tournament is the Cleopatra’s Pyramid machine. i’ve played the game a couple of times before, so i’m familiar with it.

the payouts extend down pretty far on the leaderboard.  anyone finishing in the top 100 places gets paid.  that’s a lot of payout spots.  the prizes are a mix of cash that is, well, cash.  and bonus money that has to be put into play at the casino before you can withdraw it.

i pretty much always have a mix of bonus money and cash in my account at English Harbour.

this machine has 20 paylines, and i need to break into the $50,000 territory to make it into the top 10, i’m not sure where 100th place stands, but i’m setting the coin size at $.50, so it’ll be $10 a spin and i’ll see where that takes me.

at the end of 20 spins i’m in 506th place with a modest win.

i did hit the bonus game, but couldn’t make it past the first stone (they show a pyramid on the bonus game, cleopatra’s pyramid - and you choose one stone from the bottome level, then the next higher level, earning credits all the way to the top.  unless you uncover a serpent.  then the game ends and you take whatever winnings you’ve acquired back to the slot)

in the end, i got in 107 spins, at $10 each before running out of credits. didn’t seem like i caught a hot machine at all. 

oh well.  it’s already wednesday!  i’m sure there will be another big free slots tournament next week, and there are some daily events on the EH schedule, plus, i’ve been meaning to get to a new casino to try out some different games lately.  we’ll see. 

in the end, i hope you have better luck on Cleopatra’s Pyramid than i did! 

well, it’s another new week, and i’m sure there’s a big freeroll waiting for me over at English Harbour.  but, my computer has been acting kindof finicky lately, and i can’t seem to log in to the casino.  i get so far (for instance, i can enter a password and hit the “play for real money” button) but in the end, i can’t get to the games.  so, i decided to head over to All Jackpots and see what’s going on over there.

no new microgaming slot machines are due out for a couple of weeks yet.  but, there’s still plenty of slots that i haven’t tried yet.  i browsed through the list of machines, and settled in on “Moonshine” which isn’t one of their most recent, but it’s not part of the old guard of slot machines either.  i’d venture to guess that it’s been released in the last year.

here’s a screenshot of the machine . . .

i sat down and played more than a handful of spins at the $.02 coin setting, and have to say that this is probably the first microgaming slot that i don’t like that i’ve come across in a long time. 

i think i don’t like the theme of it, really.  while the crickets playing in the background are fine, the music that plays when you hit a winner just isn’t to my liking.  the images aren’t to my liking.  especially the frying pan full of what looks like worms.  that, turns me off.  the sardines don’t help either, lol.

haha, that’s what i want to see, speaking of sardines, the Fisherman of the Sea slot!  tug boats, tuna, lobsters, life preservers, and some old man in a set of yellow rain gear!

ok, back to the point.  i can see why slot makers end up with three or even more versions of the same basic slot machine, only with different graphics.  because the graphics and the sounds can be fine tuned to a person’s tastes to really bring all the features of the slot machine together into one big, fun package. 

that didn’t happen for me with this game. 

well, it’s been a couple of days since i’ve played any slots.  one of them i spent at the poker tables, and boy was it a ride!  in the end i was able to walk away pretty far ahead of where i started, and for that i’m glad. 

yesterday, no games at all.  i was a bit under the weather, and spent the day doing nothing at all.  but today!!!  today, i’m taking my shot at the Big Free II slots tournament that’s going on over at the Harbour and Superslots.

the Big Frees II is the $5,000 freeroll event that lasts from 9th until the 15th of january.  i’m coming in at the halfway point.

the prizes are split up in a unique manner this time out!

first, second and third each get a piece of all the cash money involved (20-15-10% respectively), and a good hunk of bonus money (1,00-500-$250), so there should be no complaints from the front line.

besides the top 3, there are 5 other layers of prize winners.  the next 10 players each get $100 in bonus money, and it says 30% of the cash, so i’m figuring they split it up between the players.  that’s the first time i think players at this level get cash money for their efforts.

the next level of prizes also includes cash, so it turns out the top 38 players get both bonus money, and real money prizes. the top 100 get bonus cash, so there’s a lot of prize money being given out, but, it’s also going to a lot of people.  that makes for a good tourney, in my mind.

well, must be in the minds of a lot of people, so far there are 14,000+ players in the event.

everyone starts with $500, and the leader turned it into a coll $100,000.  wow.

the machie being used for the tournament is the 5 reel Wheel of Chance machine, so i’m familiar with it.  i’ve put some pretty good time into playing this slot, and i like it!

well, after my first 20 spins, at $20 a spin, i’m up just a little and sitting in 300th place.  i’m going to keep the $20 spins going until i bust out, or make it up into the money spots!

one thing i just noticed about this slot is that there is no “suspense mode” like on the microgaming video slots (at least the newer ones).  i landed the scatter twice fast, on the first and second reels, and the game didn’t jerk into that slow-motion build the anticipation mode. 

also, even though there are 20 different paylines, they mustnot be the same as on the microgamings.  i’m looking waiting to get paid for a winner that’s on a payline on some machines, but not on this one.  hmm.  anyway, i’m still sitting in 300th spot, waiting to go up or down.

make that 273rd    - ta da - BONUS ROUND!!  now i’m 204th!

170th with that last win!

and from there, it was all downhill.  i’m busted.

well, my gaming is in for the day.  catch ya tomorrow.

well, while i’m feeling all bothered, i thought i’d take a couple of spins on the tunzamunni machine.

i set the auto-pilot control for 100 spins and decided to see where i land when they were done.  as it turns out, i landed at break-even, so i set it to go off for another 100 spins to see if they would make any difference.

200 spins on that machine (which incidentally has a jackpot of $83,000) would mean putting $50 into play, which isn’t a ground-breaking amount.  still, it’s a couple of hundred chances at landing a big one!

and here i sit at 200 spins for the night, and nothing to show for it.  while it’s certainly a good thing that i have money left in the account, i’m thinking i’m sitting pretty much in the same place where i started.  and that’s no different than when i woke up this morning.  so, why not give something new a try?

since i started with about $30 tonight, i thought i’d see if i can’t get in 500 spins on the quarter-spin tunzamunni game tonight.  that would be about $125 in wagers, which is not anything to write home about, so i’m hoping that the answer is going to be yes. 

still, if you start with $30, how much wagering can you expect to get out of a bankroll like that?

well, i guess that depends on simple things like “how much are you going to spend on each spin?”.  in this case, i’m hoping to put a quarter into play, so we are not talking big money.  but, if you’re looking to do anything 500 times, well that might change things a bit. 

i should be able to pull out a little bit of math and figure that out, but tonight i’m simply not in “math mode”.  i’d rather just play for the fun of playing.  and since i’m on spin number 450 or so, i’m thinking there’s no probelm getting to spin #500.  at least this time around.

well, you know, if a little is good, a little more is better.  so, since i’ve made it to 500 spins on $30, i thought i’d see if i could make it to 1,000 spins!!!

let’s see . . .

that’s right.  i managed to get in 1,000 spins on the Tunzamunni tonight.  despite having 1,000 chances at landing the jackpot, i’m still going to work on monday ( ) - but, on $30, i’m thinking that’s a good time.

and, considering i’m ahead of the game, even after putting it all into play one-thousand times, that’s better yet!

well, football be damned, it turned out to be a fun night after all. 

i’ll probably catch up with everyone on monday.  have a great weekend folks!

well, tonight was the night.  and i knew it was going to happen, but it not only happened, it did so in a dramatic fashion. 

football season ended with the cowboy’s loss to the seattle seahawks.  when their quarterback tony romo, who holds on kick attempts, dropped the snap and pissed away a chance at a field goal most high schoolers could make to go ahead in the final minute of the playoff game, i ended my emotional investment in sports for at least the next 8 months.

it’s certainly disappointing in one way, but nearly uplifting in another.  penn state won their bowl game (i listened on the radio because i was travelling, and managed to tivo it, so i caught the video of it later).  that was the climax for the game of football.  woo-hoo.

while the dallas game may not have been a wrap up if they had made the field goal, they did indeed manage to snatch defeat out of thin air to insure the end of the season.  heh, why prolong things to see if you could hang on to the lead if you can end the suspense by blowing the game while you have the chance?

i would say i’m disgusted, but that wouldn’t be true.  i expected them to lose, i just thought they’d come up short.  instead, they found a way to lose.  how very entertaining.

well, what can you do?  there’s a couple of more games to watch, although i could not care less who wins any of them.  including the superbowl.  although we do have a nice party for that, and the food is absolutely amazing at that gathering, so it’s always a good time.  still, the game itself is meaningless.

the flyers have almost taken the concept of losing to new heights.  i was almost rooting for them to make it through the month of december without a win.  because if you’re going to be a loser, you may as well do it right. but, they did eek out a win.  actually two, i think.

now, they’re just the worst team in the league instead of having a romance of incompetency about them.  but, what can you do?  you can’t say “if you already stink worse than everyone else in the league, you may as well go for the pity vote”.

long story short, i guess i’ll be renting more movies than usual until at least August.

oh, what does this have to do with slots?  nothing.  it’s just a rant.  i’ll get back to the slots soon enough, hehe